Building method

ABSTRACT

A method and means for executing a building including stories of prefabricated housing units, resorting to a main support or wall carrying a platform over which a winch may run to serve in succession a plurality of ground locations over which superimposed housing units corresponding to the different stories are to be stacked. Cables wound off the winch drum are caused to engage the housing units brought in succession onto a given ground location and to raise same into their final desired position, starting with the upper units and continuing with the units of stories at decreasing heights. The raised units are secured to auxiliary bearing members such as posts, or transverse walls which serve also as guides during the hoisting of the units.

O United States Patent [191 Faucheux Feb. 4,1975

[ BUILDING METHOD 3,541,744 11/1970. Maxwell 52/236 mrzt ..,;/12 [73] Assignee: Etablisselnents Fresa, Liechtenstein, FOREIGN PATENTS APPLICATIONS Vaduz Lechtenstem 919,598 12/]946 France 52/236 [22] Filed: Jan. 30, 1973 Primary Examiner-Henry C. Sutherland [21] Appl' 328118 Attorney, Agent, or Firm-Emory L. Groff, Jr.

[30] Foreign Application PliOlitY Data 57 ABSTRACT Feb. 1, France A met od and means for executing a includ Feb. ll, 1972 Switzerland 2006/72 ingstories of prefabricated housing units, resorting to a main support or wall carrying aplatform over which [52] U.S. Cl 52/745, 52/79, 5522/)22366, a winch may run to Serve in Succession a plurality of ground locations over whichf'superimposed housing [51] i g g gig units corresponding to the different stories are to be [58] F'eld of Search 5 stacked. Cables wound offthe winch drum are caused to engage the housing units brought in succession onto [56] References C'ted a given ground location and to raise same into their UNITED STATES PATENTS final desired position, starting with the upper units and 1,362,069 12/1920 Witzel 52/745 continuing with the units of stories at decreasing 2,499,498 /1950 Ha r 52/79 heights. The raised units are secured to auxiliary bear- Fayeton t members uch as posts, o transverse 3,292,313 12/1966 Entwlstle 52/236 Serve also as guides during the hoisting of the units. 3,302,363 2/1967 Frey 52/745 3,507,080 4/1970 Van Hezik 52/236 1 Claim, S-Drawing Figures PATENIEUFEB 3.863.418

SHEET 1 [IF 4 Y- t Z,

BUILDING METHOD It has already been proposed to resort to prefabricated housing units inserted within the compartments of a metal or concrete structure in order to proceed in a rational and speedy manner with the building of lodgings and hotels.

It is however very difficult to insert such housing units inside the compartments in the structure provided for the building, in particular during the horizontal shifting of the housing units between the carrier plate brought by a hoisting apparatus into registry with a compartment and said compartment.

The improved building method according to the present invention has for its object to remove this drawback of prior art.

This improved method consists in forming a platform prises the introduction underneath said platform of auxiliary bearing members for the latter, which auxiliary bearing members being spaced with reference to one another, so as to form slides adapted during operation to guide the housing units to be set in position, while said housing units are raised by the hoisting arrangement along the auxiliary bearing members, starting with the housing unit which is to be positioned nearest the platform, said auxiliary bearing members being provided with independent supports for the different housing units when they have been shifted into the desired position.

The invention covers furthermore an arrangement for the execution of said method and the buildings obtained therethrough.

In the accompanying drawings illustrating diagrammatically an embodiment of the invention and a modification thereof:

FIG. 1 is an elevational view, partly sectional through line l-l of FIGS. 2 and 4, of the auxiliary bearing members carrying a platform, during the positioning of the housing units.

FIG. 2 is a view from above on a larger scale of the platform and of the winch carried by the latter. I

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of a housing unit fitted between four carrier posts.

FIG. 4 is a horizontal cross-section ofa building executed in conformity with the improved method.

FIG. 5 is a view, similar to FIG. 2, illustrating a modification in the execution of the method.

As illustrated in FIG. 1, the housing units 1 are brought by carriages 2 onto a piece of ground 3. Said piece of ground carries a wall 4 incorporated with an enclosure 5 provided for access means, a first row of posts 6 and a second row of posts 7, which posts are interconnected by braces 8 and carry a platform 9. On said platform 9, there is provided a winch 10 adapted to movealong rails 11 (FIG. 2). 7

Ports 12 extend through the platform 9 at the apices of a rectangle drawn inside each of the bays formed between successive pairs of corresponding posts in the two rows of posts 6 and 7. The spacing d (FIG. 2) across bays between said successive pairs of corresponding posts is equal to the breadth of a housing unit 1, so as to allow the latter to be introduced over the piece of ground 3 into the space or compartment defined by such successive pairs of posts.

defining the bay which has been provided with a stack The winch 10 illustrated in FIG. 2 includes a drum 13 driven by an electric motor 14. Four cablesl5 to 18 are wound simultaneously round the drum l3 and pass through four corresponding ports 19 extending through the bottom 20 of the carriage of the winch 10. Said ports 19 can be brought into vertical registry with the four ports 12 formed in the platform 9 inside any desired bay of the post system, by a shifting of the winch 10 along its rails. To this end, the rails 11 are laid in parallelism with the rows of posts 6. The carriage of the winch 10 is driven by an electric motor 21.

It becomes thus possible to lower the free ends of the cables 15-18 down to the level of the piece of'ground 3 and to hook onto said free ends'a first housing unit through the agency of temporary securing members 22.

The housing unit 1 is then raised by the winch 10 until it engages the lower. surface of the platform 9. The housing unit 1- is held in the position thus occupied by it, by the cross-beams 23, 24 interconnecting the posts 6 and the posts 7 corresponding to the bay inside which the unit has been raised, said cross-beams 23, 24 being rigidly secured to the posts 6 and to the posts 7, under- I neath the housing unit 1 when the latter has been duly raised into the desired position.

It should be remarked that these different posts serve not only as bearing members for the housing units 1 when raised into position, but also as guides for said units while they are being'raised by means of the winch It will be readily understood that, once a first housing unit 1 has been secured to two successive pairs of posts 6 and 7 across the intermediate bay, by means of corresponding carrier-beams 23, 24, it is possible to lower again the free released ends of the cables 15-18 down the level of the piece of ground 3 with a view to raising a further housing unit 1 which is to be secured to the same posts 6 and 7'underneath the first raised housing unit 1 and so on in succession until the required number of superposed housing units has been positioned;

It is then sufficient to shift the winch 10 along its rails over the space lying between one of the pairs of posts of housing units and next pair of posts 6, 7, in order to provide for'the positioning of astack of housing units 1 adjacent said first positioned stack.

The winch 10 illustrated includes a single drum 13 for the simultaneous winding of the four cables 15-18. It is however preferable to provide the drum with two separate drums adapted to wind simultaneously, on the one hand, the cables 15 and 17 facing one row of posts 6 and, on the other hand, the cables 16 and 18 facing the other row of posts 7.

' Landings 25 provided for each story of housing units connect the posts 6 with the wall 4. Said landings afford an access to the different housing units on the corresponding stories, provided said units include a door a bay between two pairs of corresponding posts may be shifted vertically with reference to one another. Such an arrangement may be of great advantage in mountain districts. Of course, in such buildings, the platform 9 would remain in a horizontal plane and the access enclosure would face the mountain side.

Numerous other modifications of the building method disclosed may also be considered. For instance, the rows of posts 6, 7 may be cut out entirely, in which case, the housing units 1 would be carried in an overhanging condition by the actual access enclosure 5 underneath the platform 9 obviously carried by said enclosure 5. i

It is also possible to build stories including no housing units 1 at all and provided with premises for common use such as swimming pools, skating rinks, covered gardens and the like. Once the building is finished, the platform 9 may also be converted into a common space, say a restaurant.

Of course, the housing units 1, instead of being parallelepipedic and opening outwardly of the building through a side perpendicular to the base of the parallelepipedon, may be provided with a terminal side opening outwardly of the building and sloping upwardly or downwardly or again with an outwardly opening semicylindrical side for instance.

The access enclosures 5 and platform 9 are preferably made of reinforced concrete. They may however include a metal skeleton constituted by steel rails for instance. The same is the case for the posts 6 and 7.

The access enclosures 5 may of course be spaced along a predetermined line and include two terminal towers with, say, ten pairs of posts 6 and 7 between them and a platform 9 covering all said posts.

Instead of resorting to posts arranged transversely in pairs, they may be arranged transversely three by three or in greaternumbers.

Turning to the modification illustrated in FIG. 5, the main wall 4 incorporated with the access providing enclosure 5 is connected through the story landings 25 with auxiliary walls 26 extending perpendicularly to the main wall 4, and in parallelism with one another. The

platform 9 covers the system of walls 4, 26 while the shiftable winch 10 running along the rails 11 is carried as precedingly by said platform. Ports 12 extend through the platform 9 to either side of each wall 26 and adjacent each post 6 or 7. The spacing d between any two successive walls 26 corresponds to the width ofa housing unit 1 which it is thus possible to introduce into the space separating said walls 26 at the lower end of said space.

The winch 10 includes two drums 13a and 13b driven simultaneously and in opposite directions by an electric motor 14. Two cables 15, 17 are wound simultaneously round the first drum 13a and two cables 16, 18 are wound round the second drum 1312. These cables are threaded through corresponding ports 19 extending through the bottom 20 of the carriage of the winch 10, they are lowered underneath said carriage through the ports 12 provided in the platform 9, adjacent two successive walls 26 into the space separating the latter. The housing units 1 are then raised in succession within said space, by means of said cables, into horizontal registry with the different landings 25, starting with the uppermost landing just underneath the platform 9.

When the successive housing units are brought into registry with the corresponding landings, they are secured to the walls 26 enclosing them, for instance by means of cross-beams interconnecting said walls 26 and extending underneath the unit which just been raised into position.

It should be remarked that the walls 26 enclosing the housing units to either side thereof serve not only as supports for the housing units 1 when suitably positioned, but also as guides for said units during their hoisting through the agency of the winch 10.

The winch 10 runs along rails 11 extending in parallelism with the wall 4, so that it can be shifted over the successive spaces or bays defined by the auxiliary walls 26 in order to ensure the hoisting of the units brought to the lower end of said spaces.

Of course, instead of being perpendicular to the main wall 4, the auxiliary walls 26 may lie along acute angles with reference to the main wall. Or again, the auxiliary walls may lie radially with reference to a cylindrical or similar main wall 4. In this latter case, the successive auxiliary walls would no longer be parallel and the cross-section of the housing units should preferably be trapezoidal.

The technically necessary shafts feeding the housing units 1 with water, electricity and the like, may be incorporated with the access enclosures and they are then connected with distributing pipes or sheaths embedded in the walls of the housing units 1 when the latter have been duly positioned.

I claim:

1. A method of constructing a multiple-story building comprising the steps of:

a. erecting a vertical concrete structure having a plurality of walls defining an interior access well extending the height of the building;

b. providing a plurality of horizontal landings projecting outwardly from at least one of said walls of said concrete structure and corresponding in number to the number of stories of said building;

c. attaching to said landings a plurality of spacedapart auxiliary guide members extending vertically to substantially the building height with each pair of adjacent said guide members defining with said attached landing the lateral and innermost limits, respectively, of a vertically extending channel through which housing units are to be hoisted;

d. providing additional auxiliary guide members extending vertically to substantially the building height and connecting with said first mentioned auxiliary guide members to likewise define lateral limits to said vertically extending channels as well asdefining the outermost limits thereof whereby, said landings define a plurality of bays in each channel at theinnermost end thereof and the outermost limits of said channels are void of any lateral connecting structure between adjacent pairs of said additional auxiliary guide members;

e. constructing a co-planar platform extending from the top of said wall of said well-defining structure to which said landings are attached, with said platform overlying in a co-extensive manner said auxiliary guide members and all of said adjacent vertical channels;

f. providing a winch mounted on rails atop said platform;

g. moving said winch on said platform rails above the top of a selected one of said channels;

h. forming openings in said platform to permit the lowering of cables from said winch into said selected channel;

. moving a pre-assembled housing unit longitudinally k. vertically hoisting said housing unit with said winch through said channel to the uppermost available one of said bays adjacent a landing;

l. securing cross beams to said guide members laterally of said selected channel beneath said hoisted housing unit to support said housing unit;

in. securing said housing unit to said cross beams;

n. disconnecting said cables from said housing unit and repeating this step and steps (i) through (in) until housing units have been installed within all bays within said selected channel;

0. moving said winch on said platform rails above the top of another selected one of said channels;

p. repeating steps (h) through (n); and

q. following installation of housing units within all said channels raising said cables and removing said winch from said platform.

* I at UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE CERTIFICATE OF CORRECTION PATENT NO. 3,863,418 DATED Feb. 4, 1975 INVENTOR(S) Pierre Faucheux It is certified that error appears in the above-identified patent and that said Letters Patent are hereby corrected as shown below:

(30) Foreign Application Priority Data should read as follows:

0 1 a o 0 o o a o I o I Signed and sealed this 22nd day of April 1975.

(SEAL) Attest:

C. MARSHALL DANN RUTH C. MASON Commissioner of Patents Attesting Officer and Trademarks 

1. A method of constructing a multiple-story building comprising the steps of: a. erecting a vertical concrete structure having a plurality of walls defining an interior access well extending the height of the building; b. providing a plurality of horizontal landings projecting outwardly from at least one of said walls of said concrete structure and corresponding in number to the number of stories of said building; c. attaching to said landings a plurality of spaced-apart auxiliary guide members extending vertically to substantially the building height with each pair of adjacent said guide members defining with said attached landing the lateral and innermost limits, respectively, of a vertically extending channel through which housing units are to be hoisted; d. providing additional auxiliary guide members extending vertically to substantially the building height and connecting with said first mentioned auxiliary guide members to likewise define lateral limits to said vertically extending channels as well as defining the outermost limits thereof whereby, said landings define a plurality of bays in each channel at the innermost end thereof and the outermost limits of said channels are void of any lateral connecting structure between adjacent pairs of said additional auxiliary guide members; e. constructing a co-planar platform extending from the top of said wall of said well-defining structure to which said landings are attached, with said platform overlying in a coextensive manner said auxiliary guide members and all of said adjacent vertical channels; f. providing a winch mounted on rails atop said platform; g. moving said winch on said platform rails above the top of a selected one of said channels; h. forming openings in said platform to permit the lowering of cables from said winch into said selected channel; i. moving a pre-assembled housing unit longitudinally into said selected channel through the open portion thereof between said additional auxiliary guide members at substantially ground level until said housing unit is fully wihtin the confines of said channel and beneath said platform and winch; j. connecting said lowered cables to said housing unit within the bottom of said selected channel; k. vertically hoisting said housing unit with said winch through said channel to the uppermost available one of said bays adjacent a landing; l. securing cross beams to said guide members laterally oF said selected channel beneath said hoisted housing unit to support said housing unit; m. securing said housing unit to said cross beams; n. disconnecting said cables from said housing unit and repeating this step and steps (i) through (m) until housing units have been installed within all bays within said selected channel; o. moving said winch on said platform rails above the top of another selected one of said channels; p. repeating steps (h) through (n); and q. following installation of housing units within all said channels raising said cables and removing said winch from said platform. 